What were the roles played by Clemenceau in the peacemaking process?
Clemenceau went to the Paris Peace Conference determined that Germany should be punished severely, and made to pay for WW1.Clemenceau, who had been in Paris at the end of the Franco-Prusian War, also wanted revenge for the humiliating defeat of France in that conflict. His main aim was to cripple Germany economically and militarily to the extent that Germany could not be a threat to France for the foreseeable future.He therefore held out to get all the harshest terms into the final treaty – huge reparations, severe limitations on the German military, confiscation of territory that contained important materials and minerals needed for armaments production. He also insisted on the so called ‘War Guilt’ clause (Article 231 in the Treaty of Versailles) whereby Germany had to admit sole responsibility for starting the war, and all the losses and damage to the Allies caused by it. So, Clemenceau’s role was to extract revenge for France and cripple Germany,reducing it to the status of a secon
